Two Santas
by theHumbleGM
Summary: Every year two 'Santas' are chosen to pick out and deliver presents to all the guild members on Christmas Eve. This Christmas, Lucy and Natsu have been chosen. By the time Christmas rolls around, everyone has a great present waiting for them, even both Santas! And someone will get the greatest Christmas present they've ever received.


**Christmas is coming up soon guys! I decided I wanted to toss my hat in the ring and write a little Fairy Tail fluff piece, too, but it ended up being MUCH longer than I originally intended. I'm a firm believer in following the story where it wants to go, though. Being the writer doesn't always mean you're in control and this was one of the those times I had to let the characters lead. I hope you have some time on your hands for this one because it is LONG. If you end up liking this, I am currently in the middle of writing an ongoing story called Forgotten, which is a Fairy Tail AU about Lucy and Natsu. Hope you all check it out! Thank you for your interest and time, and thank you in advance for any favorites, follows or reviews! Happy Holidays!**

 **I own only the plot of this story.**

Lucy rolled over as she tried to ignore the noises outside her window. The sun had been up for a couple hours now, but she was not ready to wake up yet. It had been a long month and she was exhausted.

It was December, which meant the holidays were just around the corner. She'd been part of the guild for a couple Christmases now, and she had learned that the guild took Christmas very seriously. Every year, two people were chosen to be Santa for the holiday. They were chosen at the beginning of the month and were in charge of getting gifts for everyone in the guild. Then they went out on Christmas Eve night to distribute presents to all the guild members at their homes. The guild of course covered the costs of the gifts, so they were never too crazy.

Apparently during the first few years, they had made it a contest. The chosen Santas had been kept secret and on Christmas Eve, the members were suppose to figure out who the Santas were. After the first couple years, they had stopped that particular part of the tradition after there'd been too much damage to the boy's rooms.

This year, she and Natsu had been chosen. Of course, Natsu hadn't had the attention span to come up with ideas for all the guild members. She had put the list together, and come up with most of the ideas on her own, but Natsu had come up with a few good ones when she'd first asked. While many of the years the Santas had chosen something they could give to everyone, she wanted her gifts to be special. After everything the guild had done for her, she'd decided they deserved at least that much.

Natsu, on the other hand, was just excited to hand them out. Despite being in the guild for so long, he'd never been chosen to be one of the Santas, much to his shock. He planned to go all out with a sleigh, costumes, and everything. Of course, in his version, he would be pulling the sleigh instead of riding in it to avoid his motion sickness.

Since Lucy had decided to put so much effort into her gift choices, she'd been a very busy bee all month. When they hadn't been out on a job, she'd spent all her spare time digging for info on the other members to figure out what they'd like, searching the town for gifts and gift ideas, and wrapping everything at the guild hall. MIra had given her a key to the room they kept off limits this time of year so that she could store all the gifts there. While she was enjoying herself, it had been taxing work. There were a _lot_ of members, and many of them had been hard to shop for.

Plus, even though he hadn't been much help with picking out the gifts, she'd gotten to spend even more time with Natsu over the last month. She'd had a sneaky suspicion for a while that she might be developing feelings for her partner, and the last month had helped to prove that theory correct. Even with the lack of help, she'd been less annoyed with him, mostly just happy that he was around. It hadn't even bothered her that she'd woken several times to find him sleeping in her bed next to her after a particularly long night. While she was unsure what she was going to do about it, she was trying not to worry about it. Half the battle was being informed, so for the time being, she was just going to try and not make a fool of herself.

Lucy opened her eyes a crack to look around her room. Surprisingly, she was alone this morning, having arrived home a little after midnight from her latest wrapping session. Natsu had been missing most of the previous day, so when she'd gotten home, she'd expected him to be there and been disappointed to find herself alone. Realizing she probably wasn't going to get any more sleep, she decided to get up and go to the guild hall. Maybe her partner was trying to find a last minute job for them before Christmas.

After a quick soak, she got dressed, summoned Plue, and headed to the guild hall. As she walked, she talked to Plue about the last couple gifts she had to get. While he didn't have any ideas to share of his own, talking it out with him was more beneficial than asking Natsu.

As she approached the guild hall, she paused to take in the hall's decorations. They had gone all out, just like every other year. There was tinsel and greenery draped everywhere on the building, and glowing, colored lacrama dotted every available surface. Not only that, they'd put up a christmas tree in front of the building that was nearly as tall as the guild hall, covered in ornaments the guild members had made, as well as more glowing lacrama.

Lucy entered the building with a smile, just in time to be plowed over by a familiar flying body.

"What's your deal, flame breath?" the body on top of her yelled.

"What's yours, you pervy popsicle?"

"Gray, do you mind getting off me?" Lucy asked from under Gray's body.

"Whoops, sorry Lucy." Gray stood quickly and helped her to her feet. "Look what you did, you loudmouth sparkler!"

"Why you-" Lucy ducked just as Natsu came flying at Gray, barely avoiding being pulled into their fight. Rubbing her head where she'd hit the floor, she made her way to the bar.

"You okay, Lucy?" Mira asked as she sat down. She was already turning to grab her something to drink.

"Yeah. I should've known better than to walk in without looking both ways for flying morons first." Mira just smiled as she set down a glass in front of her. "Any idea what started it this time?"

"Not a clue."

"Gray took off his clothes again," Happy answered as he hopped onto the bar. "Natsu insulted him and then they started fighting. Nothing too out of the ordinary."

"You can say that again," Lucy said, taking a drink. "Where have you two been? I haven't seen you since yesterday morning."

"Natsu was trying to find a smaller sleigh to pull around tomorrow. The one he got takes 6 horses to pull. He said he thinks he'll get too tired dragging that one around all night."

"I told him to get a small one when he told me at the beginning of the month. Why did he change his mind now?"

"He spent a few hours pulling it around yesterday and got really tired. When I reminded him that we still had to fill it with presents, he said he wasn't pulling all of that, plus you and me all night."

"I never said I was riding in it, but I'm glad he finally listened."

Mira came back from the other end of the bar. "Does that mean Natsu is going to dress up as a reindeer then?" she asked Happy.

"No, I'll be the reindeer and he's going to be Santa. Oh, Lucy, I forgot, he got you a costume, too."

"What, why? No one's even going to see us, why would I dress up?"

"He said we have to, it's part of the mission."

"It's not a mission," she reminded him.

"Well that's how Natsu's treating it, so he got you an outfit."

She sighed. "What kind of costume?"

"Mrs. Claus of course."

Lucy's cheeks pinkened and her body grew warm. "Why? Why not an elf or something?"

"You two are both Santas. Since you did so much of the work, Natsu didn't think it would be fair to only make you an elf, and you'd look terrible in a beard, so he said you can be Mrs. Claus."

"Well that's weird, but I guess it kind of makes sense." Lucy looked over at where Natsu and Gray were still fighting just in time to see Erza enter the guildhall. The boys both noticed her enter as well, and they silently slinked off in opposite directions. Natsu made it to the bar just before Erza and pretended to look busy by talking to Lucy.

"So Lucy, you ready for tomorrow? I've got the sleigh and costumes all picked out."

"Almost. I have a couple things to pick up today and get wrapped, but then I should be set."

"Do you want any help? I know I haven't been much help with the idea part, but I can help pick things up and bring them back here."

While she was more than happy to spend the day with him, she was worried about the condition the gifts would be in when they made it here. "Actually, you know what? Sure. I have a couple heavy items I have to get, and I wasn't looking forward to dragging them around everywhere."

"Alright, now I've got a fire in my belly! Let's go!" He grabbed her hand, and, before she could protest, he was running with her out of the guild hall, Happy right behind them.

* * *

"This was a mistake," Natsu said, as he continued to try and convince his stomach to behave.

"Sorry, but I had a hard time finding one of the gifts in Magnolia. It's only a half hour train ride, you'll be fine."

"Nope, I'm done after this. I'll walk back to Magnolia on my own if I have to."

"You can't, you promised to help me today."

"That was before I knew that I'd have to take the train." He covered his mouth again as his stomach heaved.

"Here, let me trying something." Lucy stood and moved to sit next to him, lifting his head so she could slide her lap under it. After he settled back down, she began to rub her hands over his scalp. His hair was surprisingly soft and grew more wild as she rubbed her fingers through it, over his scalp, near his neck and behind his ears.

Natsu felt his stomach calm a little as he focused on Lucy's fingers in his hair. She occasionally changed the pressure and sometimes just used her nails as she rubbed his head, one hand making its way down to his shoulders and back again as she tried to ease him. It felt wonderful and helped his stomach immensely. He sighed as he snuggled into the bench and her lap a little more. She was wearing pants to ward off the cold, so his cheek rubbed against fabric instead of the soft skin of her legs, but that was okay. He could still smell her calming scent as her body surrounded him. He purred a little in the back of his throat as he melted against her. Far too soon, the train stopped and Natsu opened his eyes as he realized he felt no ill effects from the ride at all. Then he realized that he was sad the ride was over. What was wrong with him? He hated transportation.

"Natsu, you okay? The train stopped," she asked him. He could see Happy sleeping across from them on the other bench. Feeling his cheeks heat, he quickly sat up and grabbed his bag.

"Yeah, I'm great. That helped a lot, thanks. Hey Happy, it's time to get moving!" He eagerly grabbed the blue cat and abruptly left the cart to get onto solid ground.

Lucy just blinked at his hasty exit for a minute. She wondered if she had actually helped him as much as he said. He had seemed content on the ride, much more so than usual, but once it had stopped he'd hurried off like he was still going to throw up. As she stood to grab her own bag, she worked on calming her nerves a little. She had enjoyed touching Natsu way too much. Even after he'd started that weird purring sound, which she had to assume was some sort of dragon slayer thing, she'd been surprised at how much she'd enjoyed listening to it. Besides that, even though she was getting use to the natural heat that he gave off, he'd seemed warmer to her today, and she had also gotten worked up and made her own heat. Her jacket currently felt like a sauna and she desperately needed to cool off, so she quickly followed her companions off the train before she lost them in the city.

As the cold air hit her, she unzipped the top of her jacket and swore she saw steam come out. Looking around, she eventually saw Natsu's pink hair on the far end of the train station. "Natsu!" She hurried to catch up before he left the train station.

"Hey Natsu, shouldn't we wait for Lucy?" Happy asked as he flew near his friend.

"She'll catch up, just give her a bit." Natsu continued to make some distance as he tried to sort through the thoughts in his head. Lucy was his friend, why had he had so many weird thoughts about her skin and her smell? He sounded like Juvia when she got into one of her rants about Gray. And since when had he noticed that she had such soft skin and smelled like a forest after a clean rain? He could feel his face getting redder so he tried to focus on his surroundings so he could calm down.

"You look a little flushed, Natsu. Are you okay?" Happy asked him.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just ready to get this over with and get back home."

"You seem better this time than you usually do after a ride on the train."

Thinking again about Lucy's hands in his hair, his face grew warmer as he exited the train station. "I guess Lucy managed to help."

Happy put his hands over his mouth. "You loooooove her."

"Shut it, Happy. I'm just glad I'm not trying to throw up my stomach."

"Uh huh, sure."

"Hey!" Lucy bent over to catch her breath. "What the heck, Natsu? Why did you run off without me? You don't even know where we're going."

"It was just getting stuffy in there with all those people," he lied. "Now that we're here, how about you tell me where we're going?"

"Geez, in a hurry?" she asked as she pulled a notebook out of her backpack.

"Yeah. I'd like to get this other train trip out of the way as soon as possible. Unless you're up for walking home?"

"No, not once we grab the things we need to pick up." Lucy flushed a little as she looked for the right page. Here she'd thought she was helping him and apparently he was more agitated by their ride than normal. "We have three stops. The orders should be ready, we just have to pick them up."

"You said there was only one thing you needed to get from here."

"Only one that I _needed_ , yes, but I had some good luck with a couple other gifts, so I decided to get them out here, too."

"Alright,well, let's get going."

Their first stop was a bookstore about half a block away. As she entered, Lucy scanned the new releases section before heading to the counter, seeing nothing of interest. Behind the counter, a young girl with pigtails was bagging up some books for an older woman so Lucy waited. She watched as Natsu walked around the store, looking bored. Happy was floating up near the second floor but it didn't look as though he was taking anything in. When it was Lucy's turn, she moved forward with a smile.

"Hello, my name's Shay, how can I help you?"

"Hi, I have an order to pick up under the name Lucy."

"Oh yes, I have that one right over here." She moved towards a shelf holding several bags and came back after finding the correct one. Setting the bag on the counter, she carefully pulled out the book that was inside of it. "Is this the one you were looking for?"

"Yes, this is perfect. I'm so glad you guys had a copy, it's so hard to find nowadays."

"We aim to please," the girl said as she rang Lucy up.

Nearby, Natsu watched as Lucy excitedly opened the book in her hands and flipped through the first couple pages. That sparkle stayed in her eyes as she paid for the book and thanked the girl again. With her bag in hand, she looked around until she made eye contact with him and moved his way. "Ready?"

"I thought we were shopping for the gift thing? Why are you getting a book?"

She rolled her eyes at him. "It's not for me, it's for Levy. She's been reading my collection by Kemu Zaleon, but some of my books got destroyed by a certain someone fighting with Gray in my room." Natsu blushed a little as he avoided looking at her and they made their way out of the shop. "This is one of them, and it's one of his older and harder to find works. I'm getting it for her, because I think she's going to like this one the best and she hasn't read it yet."

"Gotcha." He rubbed his head as he followed her. "I'm sorry about the book thing."

She shrugged. "It happens. I'll find a replacement eventually."

After their second stop, a weapon store to pick up a sword for Erza, Natsu's stomach let out a huge growl. Before he could say anything, Happy's also growled. "Hey, can we stop for food now? I'm starving!" he asked.

"Me, too!" Happy added.

"Are you sure? There's only one more stop and then we'll be taking the train again."

Natsu paled at the thought and made an unpleasant sound. "You're right. Nevermind, let's get to the last store."

"Hey, I'm still hungry and I don't get sick on trains!"

"We'll stop so you can grab a fish then, how does that sound?" Lucy asked.

"Aye, sir!" After a quick stop, where Natsu grabbed food despite Lucy's warnings, they made their way into a large toy store. The boys waited outside with their food as Lucy went in to grab her order. When she exited, both had finished eating.

"Did you have to stop here to get Romeo something?"

"No, I got his gift a couple weeks ago."

"Then who are you getting a toy for?"

"Technically, it's five toys." After explaining how the toys work, Natsu looked shocked.

"That's actually really cool," he admitted. "You know it's going to vastly expand his ego, right? Having a miniature version of himself running around?"

She shrugged. "They're pretty cool individually, too, so it won't be all the time."

"If you say so. Ready to get going then?"

"Yes," she answered, adjusting her bag. "You okay carrying all those?"

"Of course, it's what I came along for," Natsu answered with a smile.

On their way to the station, Lucy was very aware of Natsu's arm next to hers. The sidewalks had started getting more crowded, so they were walking close together to avoid running into other people. Every time his arm rubbed against hers, she tried to ignore the tingles that went up and down her arm.

Meanwhile, Natsu was having a similar problem. Happy was walking just behind them to avoid getting run over so Natsu was holding all the bags in his left hand to avoid hitting him with them. That meant his right hand was free as it swung next to Lucy's open one. While he had grabbed her hand on many occasions, doing so now felt more like he'd be _holding_ her hand, which was different. He was pretty sure she wouldn't question him doing it, but he kept his hand to himself.

A large cart was making its way down the road, so as they came up to the intersection, he stopped to let it pass. Lucy hadn't even noticed the vehicle since she had distracted herself so thoroughly. She stepped off the sidewalk, but a warm arm around her waist yanked her back.

Her heart leapt into her throat as her body was pulled flush against Natsu's body. "Watch it Lucy! You almost got run over!"

She looked up and finally noticed the wagon that was passing by. "Oh, sorry. Guess I was daydreaming."

"At least one of us was paying attention."

"Yeah, thanks for the save." She took a step away from him as she adjusted her pack.

She was blushing and Natsu couldn't help but stare for a moment. She was adorable when she got embarrassed. "So, what do we have to do when we get back?" he asked, trying to distract himself.

They talked about the different tasks Lucy had left as they made their way back to the station. Natsu offered to do some of the wrapping, but when Lucy reminded him how that had gone at the beginning of the month, he was relegated to making some stops in town instead. As they got to their seats on the train, Lucy offered to rub his head again and before he could stop himself, Natsu agreed to let her. While it did make him feel much better, it also meant he ended up cuddling with her lap again and he was having a hard time with his thoughts because of it.

When they eventually made it back to Magnolia, once again he rushed to leave the train. Before Happy could follow suit, Lucy gave him a pre-counted chunk of money and a list with the stops Natsu had agreed to make.

"Make sure he gets all of these before the stores close and gets them back to the guild hall. I wanna finish with all the gifts today so we're not scrambling tomorrow."

"Aye sir!" Happy grabbed the pile and took off after Natsu. Lucy rubbed her hands together, trying to get rid of the tingle in her fingers. Hopefully it was a while before she had to do that again. It was hard to keep her mind in check when her hands were in his hair and his head was in her lap. After a couple deep breaths, she grabbed her bag and headed out to finish her own tasks for the day.

* * *

"Wait Natsu!"

"What is it Happy? You said Lucy wanted this stuff to the guild hall as soon as we were done."

"Yeah, but you have to cover it better! Some of the stuff isn't even in a bag!"

Natsu looked down at the stuff he was carrying. "Well what are we supposed to do about it? It's not like anyone knows who's getting what, and most of it is wrapping paper. I doubt anyone will even notice there are gifts in here."

"Alright, if you want to risk making her mad, then let's go." Happy started flying towards the guild hall.

"Uh… on second thought, why don't we swing by Lucy's place on the way? We could borrow a blanket or something to throw over the bags."

"Aye, sir!"

When they finally made it to Lucy's, Happy carried Natsu and the bags up to the correct window. Natsu opened the window and they entered just in time to see Lucy changing. They froze as Natsu's feet hit the floor. Lucy also froze. She was only in her under garments with a shirt halfway pulled on.

"Get out of my room!" she yelled as she kicked the pair. The bags Natsu had been holding fell out of his hand and both he and Happy hit the wall hard. She quickly pulled on pants as the two picked themselves up, her entire body heating up in a blush. "Why do you two never use the front door like regular people? Or atleast knock before you come in?"

"Sorry Lucy, we thought you were at the guild hall," Natsu said as he rubbed his nose. "We wanted to borrow a blanket to cover up the bags before we brought them over there."

"Aye." Happy got up slowly and dusted himself off, too.

"Well, I'm home and I was trying to get dressed," she said, pulling on a sweatshirt over her tank. _How embarrassing! They'd shown up in her house lots of times without asking but never when she'd been so underdressed. Why did they have to do it today of all days! Wasn't she having enough trouble wrangling her emotions?_

"We're sorry." Looking over at them, she finally noticed that Natsu was also pretty red in the face. She supposed he was embarrassed, too, which meant she should probably be a little nicer.

"It's alright. Since you're here, I might as well help you carry stuff to the guild hall so we can get everything finished up. Did you get everything on the list?"

"Aye, sir!"

"Sure did!"

She smiled. "Alright, then let's get going." She added two bags to the pile and they headed off. On the way, they talked about their Christmas plans and when they'd like to go out on their next mission. He had seen one for Mount Hakobe, but she refused because it was too cold during the warm part of the year; there was no way she was going in the winter. Both were at ease as they made their way towards the guild hall. They used a side entrance to avoid the rest of the guild as they made their way towards the room where Lucy had been spending so much time during the month.

As he opened the door, Natsu stopped in the doorway wide-eyed for several seconds. "Hey Natsu, would you mind getting out of the way?"

"Wow…" He moved over as she followed him in and shut the door behind them. "No wonder you've been spending so much time in here." There were presents on every available surface except one in the middle of the room. There were notes and signs scattered around marking each group of presents. "This is amazing Lucy!"

"Thanks! I've been trying to keep them all sorted as I went. Mira gave me a list of where everyone lives so I could group them together. It should make handing them out easier this way."

"Way to go! I hadn't even thought about that." He moved forward and placed the bags on the empty table. "Well alright, what do you want me to do?"

"Not touch anything." He gave her an innocent expression as he started to protest. "Don't you even try to argue with me. You know as well as I do that you could easily mess this whole thing up without even trying. Don't mess with the presents. If you want, you can help me box up the gifts so they can be wrapped, but don't touch _anything_ on the other tables."

Natsu raised his hands in defeat. "Alright, alright, I won't touch anything." Then he started digging through the pile of boxes in the corner.

* * *

Lucy locked her door behind her as she finally made it home that night. Despite Natsu's promise, he'd still managed to knock over two of the tables and she'd been forced to reorganize them. After that, he'd managed to knock over the bag of food Mira had brought them for supper and made a mess of several presents, which she was forced to rewrap. After cleaning that up, she'd sent him home in an effort to save herself anymore extra work. She'd finished up shortly before nine and had finally made it home. She was looking forward to a hot soak and sleep.

As she set down her bag, she felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise a little. She sighed, suspecting she knew what she was about to find. Sure enough, as she entered her bedroom, there was a noticeable lump already in her bed. Lucy sighed and headed for her bathroom to take a bath. His presence hadn't changed her plan one bit, and after undressing, she got into the tub.

After drying off and dressing, she cleaned up her room a little before getting into her bed. She had to move Natsu over to make enough room for herself. It took a while, but after a few good pokes in his side, he rolled over, giving her half the bed. It was already warm under the covers, so after she got settled, it took no time at all for her to fall asleep.

She had several weird dreams that night, mostly of flying above Magnolia in a sleigh filled with presents. Natsu was with her and they were dropping presents all over the town, on houses, on the streets, and every surface they could find. Happy flew ahead, pulling the sleigh through the sky, his wings much larger than usual. They paused over the guild hall and dropped presents directly into the hall through a hole in the roof. After they finished, they flew back to the North Pole. Still dressed in their outfits, they sat in front of the fire and opened gifts from each other. Natsu opened a box filled with fire, which he immediately consumed. Meanwhile, Lucy's present was filled with more books than the library at the guild hall could ever hold.

Suddenly the room changed and they were in bed. Natsu had ditched his beard and most of his outfit, and Lucy was in a red and white nightgown. As they settled in, Natsu leaned over her, giving her a soft kiss on the lips. She smiled and tugged on his neck to kiss him deeper. Natsu moved between her legs and settled his body on top of hers. As she sank her hands into his hair, he kissed her deeper still, tasting and exploring her mouth with his tongue. One of his hands ran down her side, grasping her hip as he ground his hips into her a little before trailing down to grab the hem of her nightgown. Lucy's hands moved to explore the muscles of his back and sides as he exposed her skin to his heated touch. His mouth moved to her neck as he moved his other hand down to her other hip. She groaned as he trailed kisses down her neck to the top of her breast. He followed the lace across one breast to the other as she arched her back, giving him easier access.

Suddenly, Happy appeared next to the bed, his hands over his face as he giggled. "You looooove him."

Lucy's eyes flew open as she awoke. She breathed deeply as her dream started to fade. Her heart was beating hard and her entire body was on fire. That second part was, in part, due to who she was sharing her bed with. Suddenly, she shot up in bed as she realized where her mind had gone. _That dream. The person she was sharing a bed with. What the crap was wrong with her?_ Natsu was still asleep next to her, but at some point during the night, he had turned to face her and had cuddled up to her side. His arm was wrapped snugly around her waist, and his grip hadn't loosened despite her having moved into a sitting position. A part of her was thrilled with what was happening, but the rational part of her understood this was just Natsu being Natsu. There were no hidden meanings, no hidden feelings, nothing weird happening, just Natsu preferring her bed over his own. It had been this way since she showed up in Magnolia.

"Natsu, wake up." Lucy poked at the dragon slayer, then shook him a little. "Natsu! Wake up!" She grabbed his shoulder and shook him again. Happy popped out from under the covers, scaring her. "When did you get in here?"

"I came with Natsu," he answered.

"So you've been sleeping in here all night?"

"Aye. We were too tired to go home, so we came over here."

Lucy blew the hair out of her face as she looked at Natsu. Since he wasn't waking up, she tried to pry his arm off her waist. Just as she thought she might be free, he tightened his hold and rolled over, squishing Lucy between himself and the wall. "Natsu! Let me go!" Lucy wedged her knees up between herself and Natsu and then shoved with all her might.

That finally managed to wake Natsu up enough that he opened his eyes. He gave her a tired look, then yawned and stretched, one arm still firmly wrapped around her waist. "Good morning, Lucy."

"Do you mind letting me go now?" Lucy felt her cheeks flush. Being held this way while he was even half awake felt so much more intimate than when he was sleeping.

Natsu looked down, realized what he was doing, and then pushed himself away. "Whoops, sorry. I didn't mean to hang on like that. It's usually only Happy I'm sleeping with, and I definitely don't cuddle with him."

"It's okay, but it's making it hard to get up." As she moved to get up, she realized she'd have to crawl over Natsu to get out of the bed. "Uh, do you mind letting me up?"

Natsu had figured out at about the same time that he was in the way, so he sat and moved his legs over. "Sorry again."

As Lucy got to get ready for the day, Natsu watched her out of the corner of his eye. She was acting weird. He'd fully expected to be kicked out of her bed when she got home the night before. This morning, instead of kicking him out, she'd been nice about him manhandling her and not letting her out of her own bed. Not to mention the day before; he had ruined her gift sorting system and ruined some of the gifts. She hadn't gotten upset then either, she just cleaned up the messes and sent him on his way so he wouldn't make more.

When she came out of the bathroom, she went to her dresser to pull out a sweatshirt. "So are you still planning on spending the day at the guild hall?" she asked.

"Yeah, we don't have anything else going on. Plus, it's Christmas Eve, so they should have some games set up for everybody."

"Oh yeah, I had almost forgotten about that. I suppose we should get going soon then, huh? Are you ready?"

"I will be, just one minute," he said as he headed for the bathroom.

"Lucy, do you have any fish?" Happy asked.

"Not at the moment, but I bet Mira does at the guild hall."

"Well you're not use," he said dejectedly.

"Watch it, cat, or you'll ruin my good mood."

Natsu returned and went over to pick up Happy. "You ready, little buddy?"

"Aye, sir!"

He looked at Lucy and gave her one of his big grins. "Then let's go."

Lucy smiled back as they left her apartment, her dreams carefully contained within her head.

* * *

They spent the entire day at the guild hall. The games had started right after breakfast, and had gone on until after dinner. Several fights had broken out, of course, and Lucy had been used as a shield no less than five times by both Natsu and Gray when they had made Erza mad. Even so, it had been a lot of fun and most of the guild had been there all day. When they had left, the older members had just started in on the drinking games, but everyone else had gone to bed. Natsu had brought his sleigh to the guild during lunch and it was parked near the back of the building. They moved it near one of the side doors so they could fill it up and go deliver their presents.

Natsu did most of the carrying, but Lucy was right there with him making sure he kept the piles sorted. After they got everything in the sleigh, Lucy got ready to leave, but Natsu went back inside. "Natsu, where are you going?"

He poked his head out the door. "What do you mean? We're going to put on our costumes. Come on, I've got yours, too."

An image came unbidden to her mind from her dream of her wearing a striped nightgown. "Uh, I don't know Natsu."

"Come on, you'll be plenty warm in this thing, trust me." He gave her a big smile as he held out his hand.

"Alright."

An hour later, they were making their way through the streets. The town was quiet and a light snow had started, creating a beautiful atmosphere for their mission.

"It's really beautiful out here," Lucy said as she walked ahead of Natsu. She was wearing a long red dress covered in several spots by fake white fur. The outfit had come with a matching hat and gloves and her winter boots hid under the many layers of her dress, keeping her toes warm. Happy's outfit was just a bodysuit with a collar and set of antlers. Meanwhile, Natsu had gone all out. He was wearing the whole Santa suit, complete with a stuffed belly and beard. He'd pulled the beard down from his mouth shortly after putting it on, but he'd refused to take it off when she'd suggested it.

"Sure is," he agreed as he continued to follow her. He shook his head and quickly averted his eyes as she turned around and started walking backwards.

"So, is this as much fun as you hoped it would be?"

"I think so. I hadn't ever really thought about what it would be like, I was just annoyed that no one would let me do it."

She laughed a little as she turned around again. "Well, I think it's a lot of fun. Even though the planning was a little stressful, I'm really enjoying this part. I hope everyone likes their gifts."

"You spent all month planning and putting everything together, I'm sure everyone is going to love them." For a moment, the only sound was from their feet and the sleigh. "Hey, Lucy? I'm really sorry I wasn't more help with the planning."

"Why are you apologizing? You did help."

"Not enough. They always choose two people so that they can share the task, and I let you do most of the work."

"I'd say right now you're doing most of the work," she said as she gestured at the load behind him. Before he could argue further, she waved dismissively. "That part wasn't your forte, I get it. Planning and research are my thing, and this is yours. The part where you get to do something, where you get to act and use your hands." She shrugged as she looked at him over her shoulder. "I think you did just fine and I think our mission will be a rousing success."

They shared a smile as they stopped again and Lucy hopped up into the cart for the next set of gifts. Natsu's smile lingered as he watched her talk to Happy and they moved some of the boxes around. She was so excited as she grabbed a couple boxes and hopped down to the ground. The snow on the ground swirled around her feet as she walked up to the house and set the gifts down in front of the door. As she came back, he could see the different colors from the lights on the street twinkle in her eyes, and her smile made his stomach flutter. He was definitely having some weird feelings about his partner. He decided not to dwell on it at the moment and got the sleigh moving again as she pulled out her list to point them in the right direction. Together, they spent the next hour and a half making the rest of their stops. Despite the work, they both really enjoyed themselves. As they made it to Lucy's place, she reached into the sleigh to grab her bag.

"So how long are you going to keep this thing for?"

"The day after tomorrow," Natsu answered. "The place won't be open tomorrow, but that's okay. Gramps said we could keep it at the guild hall until then."

"Sounds good. Don't forget your guys' gifts when you drop it off."

"Huh?"

"Look Natsu! There's two left!"

"Well yeah," Lucy said with a smile. "Did you think you guys weren't going to get something?"

"Thanks Lucy!" Happy said as he went to investigate the boxes.

Natsu looked at Lucy quizzically. "There's only two left, does that mean you didn't get one?"

She laughed as she moved towards her door. "It would have been odd for me to get myself something. Gramps said there was going to be a special breakfast tomorrow, so make sure you get some sleep so you can get there." Before she closed the door to her apartment, she turned around. "Merry Christmas Eve, Natsu. Thanks for all the fun."

Natsu was struck dumb by the smile she gave him. It was late, and he knew she hadn't gotten enough sleep lately, but looking at her now, you couldn't even tell. She was absolutely glowing as she smiled at him, and he felt several emotions as he just took it in for a moment. "You, too Lucy. Sleep well." As she shut the door, he didn't move for a while, just watched the light come on in her apartment as Happy continued to speculate about his gift.

It was his fault she didn't have a gift. They'd been Santas together, so it should have been his responsibility to get her something and he'd let her down. More than that, he now knew for a fact that he was developing feelings for her. As she'd said goodbye, he'd wanted nothing more than to go to her and kiss her goodnight, and he'd never had that urge before with anyone.

"Hey Natsu, why aren't we moving?" Happy hopped up on the front of the sleigh as he also looked up at Lucy's window. "Did you forget something?"

"Yeah, I did, but we're going to make it right." He smiled at his blue companion. "You ready for a mission?"

"Aye, Sir!" Happy answered, fist raised.

"Then let's go!" Natsu grabbed the sleigh and they headed off towards the guildhall.

* * *

The next day Lucy woke up as the sun was rising, anticipation making it impossible to sleep. She was so excited to go to the guild hall and see everyone's reactions to their gifts. While everyone opened their gifts at home, it was tradition to bring them to the hall and show them off on Christmas Day. The couple years she'd been part of so far, she had been infinitely more entertained watching her guildmates with their gifts than she had by opening her own. She smiled as she threw off her blanket and got ready for the day.

Less than an hour later, she was at the guild hall, and had already been thanked by several people. As she sat at the bar, she leaned back to take in all the smiles around the hall. Bickslow was across the room making a big show on top of one of the tables with his gift. It was the one from the toy store Natsu had come with to pick up. As she watched, Bickslow's 'babies' floated in a circle around him, inhabiting the colorful totems she'd given him. After a few tricks, they came together in a poof to form a miniature version of Bickslow, which then stood on the table next to its master and copied his actions.

Next to him, Freed was twirling his gift in his hand, a short dagger. As she watched, he pointed it at the miniature Bickslow and hit the button to shoot the blade out and swipe the feet out from under it. Lucy was happy he seemed to like it. Since Freed used his sword to write his enchantments, she'd figured the hidden blade was the perfect tool for him. She knew how hard it could be to fight when your tools were taken away, so having a spare should be helpful.

Evergreen was also flashing her gift, a green fan with golden inscriptions on it that increased the magic it was used to cast. It also had an extra feature that allowed it to lengthen and be used as a shield. As Bickslow moved forward towards Freed, she opened the fan to cut him off, making them all laugh.

At the end of the bar, Cana was sitting on top of the barrel of ale she'd gotten. Unlike usual, she was drinking the brew slowly, _from a glass_. The ale Lucy had given her was the best brewed ale in all of Fiore, and it was not widely distributed. She'd used her connections through the daughter of the owner to get the keg for cheap. Cana looked like she was in heaven as she slowly drank her brew.

Next to her, Wacaba was also savoring his gift. After asking around, she'd found out that a few years back, they'd discontinued his favorite tobacco. It had taken her most of the month, but she'd found out that the owners still grew a small crop and she was able to get him a large bag of the stuff. As Lucy watched, both took a taste of their gifts and let out a long sigh.

Nearby, the rest of her team had arrived and were sharing their gifts with each other. "Isn't it gorgeous?" Wendy asked as she spun in her new dress. It was similar in style to her other dresses, made out of white and different light blue fabrics . Along the bottom there were dragons reminiscent of Grandeeney, as she'd been described to Lucy. The sleeves ended just before Wendy's elbows and she wore matching white boots. "Lucy, this is amazing, the dragons look just like Grandeeney!"

Lucy smiled as Wendy came over to hug her. "I'm glad you like it."

"I also love my gift very much," added Juvia as she hugged a piece of cloth to herself.

"What is it?" Carla asked from her seat on the table.

"A tapestry of all of Juvia's favorite people!" The water mage stood and opened the cloth. It was covered in pictures of her with many of the members of Fairy Tail, smiling and having fun. Of course, there were twice as many of her with Gray as everyone else on it. "It's wonderful, I can't wait to hang it up in my room!"

Gray squinted slightly as he looked at it but otherwise didn't comment. He wasn't as happy as the rest of the people in the room, but Lucy wasn't surprised as she saw her gift in his hand. It was a small, sealed glass bottle. She'd been in touch with the demons from Galuna Island and had found the perfect gift there. The demons had cleaned up the cave where Deliora had been kept the month before for some project. While they'd been moving stuff, they had found some shallow pools that hadn't mixed with the ocean water, and since they'd been told about Ur while the group had been at the island, they had bottled some of it up. After she'd gotten it in mail, she'd been able to have it verified by one of the magic shops in town that it was indeed leftover water from the Iced Shell spell.

He caught her eye as she was watching him and he smiled a little and nodded at her. She smiled back, glad that he appreciated the gift.

"I also cannot wait to use my gift," Erza said as she held her hand out and summoned a sword. She twirled it couple times and then swung it swiftly down the gap between the tables. As she did, the top half of the blade released, followed by a chain. After flying out about twenty feet, it reached its limit, and then came back to connect with the rest of the blade in a snap. "I believe this will be very useful. Thank you, Lucy." Everyone sitting at the nearby tables looked scared until she put the blade away.

"No problem," she said as Erza also came to hug her, smacking her head against her armor.

"The tea you got me is delicious, Lucy," Carla said as she took a drink from her cup. "And the tea set was beautiful. I know it's tradition to bring your gifts in to share, but I didn't want to risk it breaking on its first day."

"I don't blame you," Lucy said. "To be honest, I was kind of hoping you wouldn't."

Looking around the room again, she noticed more and more people showing off their gifts to the others and she couldn't help but smile again as she saw their excitement.

"So Lucy, what did you get?" Gray asked.

"What did I get?"

"Good question. I assume that Natsu took at least some of this task seriously. What did you get?" Carla asked.

"Oh, well-" Lucy tried to find a good way to answer their question when Happy suddenly appeared in her arms.

"Oh Lucy, thank you, thank you, thank you," he said, rubbing against her chest.

"You're welcome, Happy. I hope you liked it." Lucy rubbed his head as he purred against her.

"What are you all riled up about, Happy?" Erza asked.

"Lucy got me a new fishing rod and HUGE basket of fish. They were delicious."

Lucy gaped at him. "You ate all of them, _already_?"

"Aye, sir. It was the greatest gift I've ever gotten."

"Well, I'm glad you liked them at least," she said. "Where is Natsu? I'm a little surprised he's not here yet."

"Oh, yeah, I almost forgot." Happy pulled away. "I need your help."

"My help with what?"

"Natsu was so excited he didn't sleep last night. When we went to your place to walk here together, you were already gone and he fell asleep on your bed."

"So what do you need help with? Waking him up?"

"No, I was just going to let him sleep, but he locked me out and my fishing pole is in your room." He folded his paws together and gave her the biggest sad eyed look he could muster. "Will you please come get it for me?"

Lucy sighed and rolled her eyes. "You know, if you two would just sleep at your own place, this wouldn't be a problem," she said, but she stood up. He hopped down and walked with her as she started to leave. "We'll be back guys!" she called over her shoulder. The group waved as they left.

It didn't take long for them to make it to Lucy's place. As she opened the door, she called out, "Oy, Natsu! I know you like sleeping in my bed, but if you'd just clean up your house a little bit, it would be much… more…" Shocked, Lucy stopped before she entered her bedroom. Natsu was sitting cross legged on the floor at her table and food was spread out all over it.

"Good morning, Lucy!" he said with a big grin.

"Uh, Natsu? What are you doing?"

"I wanted to make sure you got your present before you went to the guild hall, but you must have woken up early today. Plus, I brought food!"

"I can see that, but what about the meal at the guild hall?"

"I got Mira to make me some stuff early so we could eat here!" Lucy recognized several of her favorite dishes among the spread on the table.

"Natsu, I don't understand."

He stood, looking more serious now. "Look, I know that you had a lot of fun with being one of the Santas this year, but I still feel bad that I didn't do enough to help. You did way more than your half of the work with all the planning, purchasing and wrapping. Especially since we still had to go on missions and work so you could pay rent. I wanted to make sure that you also had a good day and that you got a Christmas present that you'd love, just like everyone else."

He reached under the table and stood back up in front of her as he held it out. "Merry Christmas, Lucy!"

The kind gesture caused tears to prick at the backs of Lucy's eyes as she took the box from him. It was so unexpected she didn't know what to say. As she stood in front of him, she felt the butterflies in her stomach go crazy as he smiled at her. It was such a strange feeling. Half of her was so happy that her usually crazy, acts-before-thinking partner had managed to pull off such a great surprise. The other half was tongue-tied and flustered at the thought of him putting in so much effort for her. The combination was more intense than she expected and before she could do anything stupid, she threw her arms around him and hugged him.

Natsu caught her as she hugged him tightly. He was beyond ecstatic that he'd managed to pull off his surprise. The way she had smiled at him and the light in her eyes had been more than worth the late night. As she hugged him, he could feel every subtle curve of her body pressed to his and he had to struggle for a moment to keep himself under control. Carefully, before he body could do anything to give him away, he extracted himself from her hold.

"Go on, open it," he said. She flushed as he pulled away, and then sat down to do as requested. He and Happy had spent a lot of time wrapping the gift to make it look as nice as hers. They'd even put some ribbon and a bow on it.

She made quick work of the wrappings and pulled the box out of the pile of paper. Bringing the box up to her ear, she carefully weighed and shook the box to try and guess what it was.

"You'll never guess," Natsu informed her. "Not in a million years."

"It's one of a kind," Happy added.

"One of a kind, huh? Does that mean you guys made it?"

"Whoops." Happy covered his mouth as he looked at Natsu. "Sorry, I gave it away."

"Nah, she still doesn't know what it is. She would, though, if she'd just open the box," he said as he gestured at her to hurry.

"Alright, alright, geez." Lucy lifted the lid and set it aside. She dug through the pile of tissue paper until she finally found a wooden sign. A lump formed in her throat as she pulled it out and got a good look at it. It was a square piece of wood with the fairy tail symbol burned into the front. A wire was attached to the back wrapped in some white lace to hang it. Both Natsu's and Happy's names were burned into the back. "You guys… this is amazing."

"You think so? The wood and lace are from our first mission together! The wood is from that duke's house and the lace is from the maid outfit you wore."

"How did you get wood from his house?"

"They haven't cleaned up the pile very well yet, so we just flew out there," Happy said.

"Yeah, and we got the lace from the headpiece of the maid outfit so we wouldn't ruin it. The front I burned on, of course."

Lucy's eyes began to water as she looked up at him. "This is so great you guys. Thank you." She stood up and flung her arms around the pair. They both hugged her back tight as she tried to get her tears under control.

After a minute, she pulled away and rubbed her eyes. "So, did you like your gift, too?"

"Are you kidding, of course I did!" She had gotten him all of his favorite foods, as well as a fire lacrima. "I did eat all the fire from the lacrima already, though…"

"That's okay, that one can be charged, you just have to put in in a fire."

"Really? Awesome!"

They smiled at each other for a moment and then Happy interrupted the silence. "Lucy loo-"

"Hey, Happy, I have a favor to ask," Natsu interrupted him.

"Oh yeah, what's that?"

"I'm missing a dish from Mira. Do you think you could run to the guild for me and see if you can get it?"

"Aye, sir!" Natsu opened the window and Happy went on his way.

"There's an awful lot of food here, Natsu. I'm sure we could have done without one dish."

"Actually… I was just trying to get some alone time with you," Natsu said as he rubbed his head.

She stared at him and blinked a couple times. "I'm sorry, what? Why?"

Natsu fumbled a little as he tried to find the words. He wasn't good with being subtle and he generally just said what he meant, so he just went his usual route. "Lucy, I really like being friends with you. It's been a long time since I've been so happy being around someone that isn't Happy. Don't get me wrong, I care about everyone in the guild like family, but you're more than that." He continued to scratch his head. "You're… well you're…"

Lucy's mouth fell open as she watched Natsu start to pace. Was he going where she thought he was going? She felt hope blossom in her belly with the already present butterflies. "Natsu, are you saying-"

"I like you, Lucy. I mean, obviously I like you, but I like you as more than just a friend. I like spending my time with you. I like staying here with you, even when you wake me up by kicking me. I like going on missions with you, especially when it's just us. I like when you smile and laugh, even more so when I'm the one that makes you do it." He stopped pacing and just looked at her. "I like you a lot. I might even love you at this point."

Lucy didn't respond, couldn't even find her tongue to make words. He liked her? Might even love her? Her dream from two nights before came unbidden to her mind. "Natsu…"

"Before you say anything, I want you to know, that I don't expect you to say anything. I just wanted to let you know how I feel. I'm not exactly good at keeping things to myself and while I've only started to suspect recently, I know that it's going to come out eventually. At least this way, I have some control over it."

"Is it okay if I say something anyway?" Lucy asked.

He blushed but he maintained eye contact. "Of course."

Before she could change her mind, she stood up and moved in front of him. Her face began to grow warmer and warmer as she tried to convince herself to speak. When she continued to look uncomfortable, Natsu stepped back. "Listen, Lucy, you don't-"

Lucy moved forward and cut him off with a kiss. She held the kiss for a moment and then moved away. His face instantly became red as he stared at her. His mouth moved, but he made no sounds.

She grinned suddenly as her nervousness disappeared. "I like you too, you dummy." Natsu's smile was radiant as he moved forward and put his arms around her. In response, she put her hands in his hair and lifted her mouth for another kiss. This time he was prepared and he kissed her back. After a few chaste kisses, one of his hands moved up to cup her cheek. He tilted her head back and kissed her more firmly on the mouth. Her mouth parted and he took advantage of the opening to tug gently on her bottom lip. When her mouth parted a little more, he followed her breath in with his tongue.

Soon, Lucy was having trouble catching her breath and she didn't care. It turned out that Natsu kissed just like he did everything else - he jumped right in and let his instincts lead. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled her body closer to his. She was so happy that he had told her how he felt so that she could do the same. They were going to be able to be together and grow even stronger than before. Smiling as she kissed him, she couldn't imagine a better Christmas present. After a few minutes, Natsu pulled away, breathing hard. She also tried to catch her breath as they looked at eachother. Suddenly, he yanked her against him and hugged her, squeezing her for all he was worth.

"Natsu!" she gasped. "Can't breathe."

He laughed as he loosened his hold but didn't let go. "Sorry. Guess I got too excited."

Suddenly, he picked her up in his arms and her legs wrapped around him on their own. He continued to laugh as he spun her, and she held on tightly to his neck. "Don't drop me!" she said.

He stopped and pulled back a little so he could look her in the eye. "Come on, Lucy. You know me better than that." She raised an eyebrow at him. "You know I'd never let you down."

She instantly felt herself melt as he pulled her to him to kiss her cheek. "I know."

He stepped back towards her bed and sat down. Lucy moved her legs so she was kneeling as he moved to lean against her headboard. Natsu kept her in his lap as he moved and then loosely hugged her hips. "Merry Christmas, Lucy," he said with a smile.

She smiled back at him. "Merry Christmas, Natsu." Then she leaned forward and kissed him again, more happy than she'd been in a long time.


End file.
